On the Path, or marga, of Pravritti—forthgoing on which are the vast
majority of human beings, desires are necessary and useful. On that
path, the more desire a man has, the better for his evolution. They are
the motives that prompt to activity. Without these the stagnates, he is
inert. Why should Isvara have filled the worlds with desirable objects
if He did not intend that desire should be an ingredient in evolution?
He deals with humanity as a sensible mother deals -with her child. She
does not give lectures to the child on the advantages of walking nor
explain to it learnedly the mechanism of the muscles of the leg. She
holds a bright glittering toy before the child, and says: “Come and get
it.” Desire awakens, and the child begins to crawl, and so it learns to
walk. So Isvara has put toys around us, but always just out of our
reach, and He says: “Come, children, take these. Here are love, money,
fame, social consideration; come and get them. Walk, make efforts for
them.” And we, like children, make great efforts and struggle along to
snatch these toys. When we seize the toy, it breaks into pieces and is
of no use. People fight and struggle and toil for wealth, and, when
they become multi-millionaires, they ask: “How shall we spend this
wealth?” I read of a millionaire in America, who was walking on foot
from city to city, in order to distribute the vast wealth which he
accumulated. He learned his lesson. Never in another life will that man
be induced to put forth efforts for the toy of wealth. Love of fame,
love of power, stimulate men to most strenuous effort. But when they
are grasped and held in the hand, weariness is the result. The mighty
statesman, the leader of the nation, the man idolised by
millions—follow him home, and there you will see the weariness of
power, the satiety that cloys passion. Does then God mock us with all
the objects? No. The object has been to bring out the power of the Self
to develop the capacity latent in man, and in the development of human
faculty, the result of the great lila may be seen. That is the way in
which we learn to unfold the God within us; that is the result of the
play of the divine Father with His children.
But sometimes the desire for objects is lost too early, and the lesson
is but half learned. That is one of the difficulties in the India of
today. You have a mighty spiritual philosophy, which was the natural
expression for the souls who were born centuries ago. They were ready
to throw away the fruit of action and to work for the Supreme to carry
out His Will.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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